'Wife sank husband's luxury love boat'

Adam Fleming had bought the £90,000 pleasure cruiser so he and his wife Mandy could sail off into the sunset together.

Their marriage started heading for the rocks shortly after their wedding in 2002 and he thought buying a luxury yacht would keep their love afloat. But it did not quite work out like that.

First Mrs Fleming, 45, stormed out and left him, furious at the money spent on the 39ft Princess Flybridge boat.

And then, on the highly inappropriate date of Valentine's Day, 2004, the marital vessel, named the Double Dragon, mysteriously sank to the bottom of Brighton Marina.

Police found two holes drilled through the hull - and Mr Fleming, 39, is suing his now ex-wife for £55,000 in damages, claiming she was responsible.

Mrs Fleming had already appeared in court over the sinking of the craft, but charges of wilfully endangering life and criminal damage were dropped because of lack of evidence.

And she indignantly denied sabotaging her husband's floating pride and joy.

Mr Fleming however remains determined to pursue his ex-wife through the courts - even though he has subsequently repaired and sold the ill-fated Double Dragon.

Mrs Fleming, of Carshalton in Surrey, accepted she had a temper, was enraged by her husband's spending on the yacht, and that she had been on the Double Dragon hours before it sank. But she denied having anything to do with it.

Mrs Fleming said: "I'd been virtually tricked into getting married in the first place. We'd been together for 11 years when he suggested going away to Turtle Bay Beach in Florida in 2002 to sort our problems.

"Before I knew it I found all his family were there, and I was being told to get a wedding dress.

"I deliberately bought a black one to show I didn't really want to do it. You can see me crying in some of the pictures - and they aren't tears of joy."

Mrs Fleming said that when they returned to the marital home, a £250,000 town house in Mitcham, Surrey, their rows increased, as did their money problems.

She claimed she had to work 16 hour days as a painter and decorator to make ends meet, while her husband, who runs his own haulage business. increasingly went out drinking.

Then, in September 2002, came the purchase of the boat.

"He said he wanted to get a boat 'for me' and I thought he meant a little one," said Mrs Fleming. "But he started looking at all these great big things. I told him we couldn't afford it, but he said it was nothing to do with me, and borrowed the money.

"He told everyone it was a 'love gift' for me, but it effectively split us up, although I did used to go down there by myself occasionally, and travel up the coast to Hastings.

"But eventually I got sick of it all, and in September 2003 I left him and we began divorce proceedings.

"I still used to go down to the boat occasionally, although he tried to stop me - and that was where I was on the afternoon of February 13 2004."

Mrs Fleming said she took a male and a female friend on board, and was astonished to find her estranged husband had a new TV and DVD player below decks, along with new designer suits in the wardrobe and a bar stuffed to the brim with drinks.

"I called Adam to ask where he got the money for for all this stuff," she said. "He told me to get off the boat, and not spend the night there as I was planning.

"In the end I didn't stay the night, and went back to Colliers Wood in London, where I was living at the time, taking the keys to the boat with me."

On Valentine's Day morning Mrs Fleming said she was woken by her son Scott, 26, who said to her: "Mum - you've sunk the boat and the police are looking for you."

Mrs Fleming said: "It took a couple of minutes for it to sink in, if you'll pardon the pun. But I had nothing to do with it.

"I co-operated with the police fully, and they told me all the portholes had been left open, and two holes had been drilled in the hull from the inside, one 10mm wide the other 6mm.

"If I was going to drill holes in the bottom of the boat I would have used a 22mm drill, and made three or four holes.

"But why would I sink it when when it was part of our marital assets? In the end last July, I only got £10,000 and spent £6,000 in legal fees.

"Adam got the house and everything - including the boat. And the only other person who had the keys to the boat was him."

Mrs Fleming now lives with new boyfriend David Brown, who left his wife Nemone shortly before they got together.